Easy Traeger Braised Chicken Quarters

In partnership with Safeway

It’s back to school season and easy weeknight meals that can become versatile subsequent lunches are of utmost importance right now. With the help of Safeway’s DriveUp & Go curbside grocery pickup, we can grab all the essentials we need without leaving the car and end up with a variety of meals to get us through the busy weeks. Try this Easy Traeger Braised Chicken Quarters recipe tonight and your week will be easier from the start!

BACK TO SCHOOL NEEDS EASY MEALS

During the summer, I have the luck of being a school teacher and I get to be home during prime BBQ months. This means we cook a lot– and at all times of the day. The late setting sun provides ample opportunity for meals cooked on the Traeger deep into the evening- sometimes even after the twins go to bed. But summers come to an end eventually and we’re now back in the thick of a busy work schedule and life.

Not only am I now back to teaching Monday through Friday all day, but the sun is setting earlier and earlier each week. Getting dinner on the table for our busy and hungry family of 4 is still super important, but we don’t have those long lazy evenings to take our time– and I’m guessing you don’t either!

So now is the time we dig through our recipe ideas and find inspiration for things that can be cooked either quickly in the evening or during a mellow weekend afternoon and can be morphed into different meals (including easy lunches) for the rest of the week. In our house, chicken is an easy answer and this recipe for Easy Traeger Braised Chicken Quarters is super versatile and delicious.

CHICKEN QUARTERS ARE AN AFFORDABLE PROTEIN

While we like to cook with chicken breasts too, we find that white meat chicken is likely to dry out if you aren’t careful and lacks some of the moisture and flavor we like for meal-prepped food. Enter the chicken quarter– the thigh and leg portion of a chicken that packs the punch with lots of flavorful dark meat. They’re often more affordable than chicken breasts, and this week at our local Safeway, they were $0.57 a pound. Such a steal!

So we picked up a value sized pack of chicken quarters (4 in total) knowing that would make enough for a hearty dinner for our family and at least one lunch portion for the adults later in the week.

SMOKED, SEARED AND BRAISED

To add maximum flavor to our selected protein, we wanted to smoke, sear and then braise the chicken quarters to get the best result. First the chicken was seasoned generously with a garlic-heavy all purpose rub. We pulled the skin of the chicken away from the meat to get some seasoning underneath too.

SMOKE

Then the chicken was put directly on the grates of the Traeger grill set to 225*, allowing it to smoke for at least 30 minutes. More smoke time = more smoky flavor, but when time is of the essence, 30 minutes will do. The wood-fired flavor that comes from the pellet fuel of the Traeger imparts some great depth to the chicken and the end result.

SEAR

On the induction burner of my Traeger Timberline XL, I heated up my cast iron dutch oven and got it screaming hot. I added a drizzle of oil to the pan and then seared each smoked chicken quarter until the skin was golden brown. About 3 minutes per side is sufficient. Searing the meat in the pan in which it will braise just adds more flavor to the final dish and begins to render the fat in the chicken skin– amplifying the overall result and moisture in the meat.

BRAISE

The final step is to put all the seared chicken quarters back in the dutch oven pan along with a can of Signature Select tomato sauce, some carrots, onions and celery, a dash of white wine vinegar and a few cups of Signature Select chicken broth. We closed the lid on the dutch oven and returned it to the hot Traeger Grill where it continued cooking at 350* until the chicken was tender (about 2 hours).

Allow the braised chicken to cool a bit and then pull the meat off the bone, tossing with a bit more of the braising liquid and you have easy meals at the ready to kick off your week.

TURNING BRAISED CHICKEN QUARTERS INTO VERSATILE MEALS

Once we had a pot of braised, pulled chicken, we knew that we would have easy meals ahead of us for this week. Again, thanks to our Safeway DriveUp & Go order, we were able to add other items to our shopping cart to make meals quick and easy.

RICE BOWLS WITH SAUTEED VEGGIES

For dinner the first night, we put together easy, fresh and quick rice bowls topped with shredded Traeger braised chicken. The package of Fresh Cut Fajita veggies from the produce department cut down on prep time and with a bit of seasoning, oil and some high heat, we had tasty veggies for the bowls in no time.

Building the bowl was easy:

• Signature Select Microwaveable Brown Rice
• Fresh Cut Fajita Veggies
• Signature Select Seasoned Black Beans
• Sweet corn, roasted on the griddle and cut off the cob
• Traeger braised chicken quarters
• Lucerne shredded cheese
• Sour cream
• Sir Kensington’s Chile Lime Cream
• Signature Select Southwest Style Salsa
• O Organics Blue Corn Tortilla Chips

SANDWICHES

With this shredded chicken, you can also create some amazing sandwiches and that is on deck this week. Meat from these Traeger braised chicken quarters, piled atop a bakery fresh Telera roll and covered in melty Lucerne cheese slices. The sky is the limit on flavor combinations.

TACOS

And of course, tacos are a go-to in our house, all of the time. Keep it simple– pulled braised chicken, tortillas, cheese and some sauce. Or go over the top with more veggies fresh from the produce section and some of Safeway’s amazing Green Chile Queso, also from the fresh produce section.

SAFEWAY MAKES IT SIMPLE

These days, with both my wife and I working full time and two energetic toddlers underfoot, going to the grocery store can be pretty difficult, but luckily for us, Safeway makes grocery shopping effortless and easy. 

With a few clicks on the Safeway Deals & Delivery App, we’re able to pick out our groceries, add a couple of fun things for the kids (Hot Wheel cars for the win!) and schedule DriveUp & Go curbside pickup. The ease and simplicity of the FreshPass delivery makes it possible for us to still host family and friends for gatherings while letting our lives be mostly dictated by the twin toddlers underfoot. Stopping at the store briefly on the way home from daycare pickup enables us to have a home cooked dinner at home with little extra effort.

SHOP FOR GROCERIES ONLINE

For back to school deals, we checked out the Safeway for U® offerings which included specific deals and coupons based on our shopping and amazing weekly deals from the circular. Fresh produce is king this time of year, so getting a variety of things for the family to enjoy seemed like the perfect addition to our order.

CURBSIDE PICKUP

Once our order was placed through the Safeway Deals & Delivery App, we selected a DriveUp & Go curbside pickup time knowing that our grocery shopping was done. Quick, efficient and you have a personal shopper in your local store putting together your groceries for you! And then they put it right in the back of your car!

PRIMARY INGREDIENTS

• Signature Farms Chicken Leg Quarters
• Signature Select Tomato Sauce
• Signature Select White Wine Vinegar
• Signature Select Chicken Broth
• Signature Farms Cut Baby Carrots
• Celery
• Yellow Onion
• Garlic
• Seasoning- I used my Garlic Junkie Seasoning

WHY COOKING BRAISED CHICKEN ON THE TRAEGER WORKS 

While you could easily grill or just smoke these chicken quarters to end up with a tasty result, we find that braising chicken like this (particularly dark meat) results in more tender, flavorful and delicious result. The additional bonus of braising chicken in the Traeger is that it cooks in an environment with lots of moisture and your chicken will not dry out. It is truly a “set it and forget it” kind of cook that lends itself really well to a busy family like ours. Rather than standing by the grill as it cooks, we can set up this dish for cooking and then spend time with the kids.

Not unlike the simplicity of picking up groceries through Safeway’s DriveUp & Go program, our time with the kids is maximized and we’re able to get delicious meals for our family tonight and throughout the week.

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STEP-BY-STEP

• Preheat your Traeger Grill to 225* with the super smoke feature enabled.
• Unwrap the chicken quarters and pat them dry with a paper towel.
• Season the chicken quarters all over with seasoning, including under the skin.
• Place the seasoned chicken on the grill grates and close the lid.
• Allow the chicken to smoke for at least 30 minutes– and up to 1 hour– for great flavor.
• Preheat a large dutch oven to high heat and add a thin layer of oil to the pan.
• Sear each piece of chicken on both sides until golden brown– about 3 minutes per side.
• Transfer the chicken to a plate and repeat with remaining pieces.
• Once the chicken is seared, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vegetables.
• Cook for a minute or two and then stir in the tomato sauce and chicken broth.
• Stir to combine and add the vinegar.
• Then submerge the seared chicken pieces in the liquid, covering as much as possible.
• Cover the pan with the lid and return it to the Traeger set to 275*.
• Braise the chicken for about an hour and check for doneness.
• Continue cooking until the chicken begins to fall off the bone (about 90 minutes total).
• Allow the pan to cool briefly and then remove the chicken from the sauce.
• Using forks or gloved hands, pull the chicken from the bones.
• Discard the bones and skin and toss the meat with a bit of the reserved sauce.
• Use this delicious Traeger braised chicken quarter meat in a variety of dishes!

ALTERNATE RECIPES/PRODUCT LINKS

Here are some other chicken recipes you could try on your Traeger, all of which would work as great meal prep cooks:

• BBQ chicken thighs
• Lemonade grilled chicken
• Easy chicken leg quarters
• Roasted chicken with garlic, lemon and chiles

Products used in this cook:

• Safeway Deals & Delivery App
• Traeger Ironwood XL
• Smithey Ironware Cast Iron Dutch Oven

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